Sunday, December 6, 2015

The murder of Seamus Ludlow

During the recent negotiations to secure the future of the political
institutions the British government successfully thwarted efforts to put in
place the legacy elements of last December’s Stormont House Agreement. This was
deeply disappointing for victims and their families.

The British government’s refusal to honour last year’s agreement on full
disclosure and to employ the pretext of ‘national security’ to deny victims
access to state information, follows a familiar pattern. For four decades
successive British government’s and their security, intelligence and policing
agencies have worked to cover-up the systematic use of collusion, shoot-to-kill
actions, and torture.

The determination and commitment of families and of a small number of dedicated
victim’s support organisations and human rights lawyers have frustrated their
efforts. The Bloody Sunday families; the family of Pat Finucane and the Pat
Finucane Centre; Relatives for Justice; Justice for the Forgotten; the
Ballymurphy Massacre families; the Springhill massacre families and the McGurk
families and many more families and groups have tirelessly campaigned for
justice even in the face of British obstruction. They have used a range of
legal devices and publicity strategies to keep their cases on the public and
political agenda.

Regrettably, it hasn’t just been the British government that has opposed the
efforts of families. The Irish government has also played a depressingly
negative role.

One case in point is that of Seamus Ludlow. I met the extended Ludlow family
last week in Dundalk along with their legal representatives from KRWLAW – Human
Rights Lawyers, who also represent the Hooded Men. Along with Kevin Winters and
Gavin Booth from the law firm there were 19 of Seamus Ludlow’s family present,
including his sister Kathleen.

Like many other families campaigning for truth for loved ones killed during the
conflict the Ludlow campaign now embraces several generations. Brothers and
sisters of Seamus Ludlow have died since he was murdered in May 1976. But last
Friday those members of the family who have campaigned for 40 years were joined
by nephews and nieces and grand nephews and grand nieces who have now taken up
the challenge.

Seamus was 47 years old when he was murdered by a UVF/Red Hand Commando gang.
Among the four men involved in the murder were two serving officers in the
Ulster Defence Regiment. Seamus was shot and thrown into a ditch near his
Thistle Cross, Dundalk home.

In the months after his death the family was the target of a sustained smear
campaign by the Gardaí who claimed that Seamus was killed by the IRA allegedly
because he was an informer. They also subsequently claimed that a member of the
family was involved. None of this was true.

The investigation into the murder was suspended quickly by the Gardaí. Four
months after Seamus was shot dead an inquest was held. The Gardaí failed to
inform the family in time. As a result no family members were present.

Subsequently it also emerged that the Gardaí knew that unionist paramilitaries
were responsible from shortly after the murder. In a letter to the Gardaí in
January 1979 the RUC identified the four suspects it believed were responsible
for the killing. Two confessed during interrogation by the RUC although later
the DPP in the north declined to take them to court.

The Gardaí never interviewed the four men and never told the family. The family
first heard of the four in an investigative report by the Sunday Tribune in
1998 uncovered the names of those allegedly involved in the murder.

As a result of the steadfastness and courage of the Ludlow family the murder
was investigated by the Barron Commission, which also investigated the
Dublin-Monaghan Bombings, as well as bomb attacks in Castleblaney, Dundalk, the
Miami Showband murders and the deaths of 18 other citizens.

It reported that files and much of the forensic evidence, including fingerprint
evidence and ballistics was missing from Garda files.

The Final Report of the Independent Commission of Inquiry from the Irish
Parliamentary Joint Committee on Justice was published in March 2006. It
expressed its “disappointment at the lack of cop-operation from the British
authorities … the role collusion played in the murder of Seamus Ludlow.” It was
also hugely critical of the behaviour of the Gardaí toward the family. It
accused the Gardaí of having treated the family in “an appalling manner.”

Crucially the report also recommended the establishment of two Commissions of
Investigation by the Irish government. “One commission was to examine the
conduct of the Garda investigation and the co-operation with the police in the
North and the other was to examine the issues relating to the absence of
relevant documentation. To date we note that these recommendations have not
been furthered since.”

Last year I wrote to the Minister for Justice asking if he would implement the
outstanding recommendations of the Final report. He said: “There are, however,
no plans at present to establish a Commission of Investigation into the case.”

Along with their legal team the Ludlow family has now mapped out a legal route
to highlight the case and secure additional information from the Irish and
British governments. Specifically in the north the family will issue civil
proceedings against the PSNI (who inherited the responsibilities of the RUC),
the British Ministry of Defence and the Secretary of State in an action for
damages including collusion and negligence. This they believe will help assist
the discovery of evidence. The family also intend writing to the office of the
Public Prosecution Service asking why it's predecessor the DPP refused to
prosecute the four men identified as the unionist paramilitary gang
responsible.

The family also intend writing to the Irish govt over its refusal to act on the
Barron recommendations.

Almost 40 years after his murder and nearly ten years after the ‘Final Report
on the Report of the Barron Commission’ it is the Irish government – not the
British government – that continues to obstruct the Ludlow family’s efforts to
get to the truth. It is the Irish government which is refusing to establish the
Commissions of Investigation.